Narrowing in on Curiosity's Landing Site

This image shows the location (green) where scientists estimate NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars within Gale Crater, based on images from the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).

The stack of color MARDI images was taken as the rover was gently placed on the surface by the descent stage as its rockets fired. The smallest image was taken when the rover was less than 66 feet (20 meters) above the ground. These observations helped scientists pinpoint the landing site of the rover to where the green spot is shown, to within about 16 feet (5 meters) of certainty.

The gray scale image is a mosaic from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.